Last night, Top Cow President and COO Matt Hawkins staged an “Ask Me Anything” interview on Reddit, giving fans an opportunity to ask him directly about everything from Think Tank, the comic he’s writing, to the return of Cyber Force (in stores today, and free!), to his time as a writer Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers.Below, find some of the highlights. In the interest of expediency, we’re not linking to the profiles of the Reddit users who asked the questions as we have in the past–but here’s the unedited version, if you want to check back to see if your question appears here.Any update on Pitt returning? You guys have been teasing us for awhile!We’ve been looking for a creative time for Pitt for a long time. Any suggestions? We want to do a new series and coordinate that with the reprinting of all Dale’s old Pitt stuff. It’s NEVER been reprinted.I’m super psyched for the return of Cyber Force. I loved the series as a kid in the 90s. What was the main drive in bringing the series back and how is it going to be different than previous iterations?The main reason to bring it back this month was to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Top Cow’s birth as a company. We recently relaunched our Universe through the Artifacts series and this gave us a good reason to relaunch/reboot Cyber Force. This version is a lot more cybernetic and a lot less genetic (X-Men). Has to do with technology, obsolescence and how it affects us as a species.
Artifacts
Really excited about Cyber Force and I’m also coming to your signing this weekend in LA. Anything you can tell us about this series? Is this a soft reboot or hard? Is that Aphrodite I see on one of the variant covers? Thanks.
Since Cyber Force is returning as an on-going series, are there any chances that Top Cow will push a Talent Hunt focused on that franchise? I wanted to try out this year’s, but all the Witchblade/Artifacts stuff seems kinda complicated/confusing to digest without spending loads of money & time researching each character involved in order to pitch a story.
And speaking of franchises, will you guys push some new IP next year, or you already got enough books to deal with?
Cyber Force
Artifacts
Cyber Force
Control
Think Tank
Cyber Force
My only concern with giving away the first five issues is the fact only people whom regularly go into comic stores already will get this. How do you plan on combating this, if at all? Will there be copies distributed elsewhere such as libraries or schools and colleges, etc.?
Will Barricade (from Image United) be making an appearance in the new Cyber Force series? We didn’t get to see a whole lot of him in Image United.
How about teaming with DST for more Top Cow Minimates? The Magdalena and Witchblade minimates need friends!
Is Think Tank going to be a ongoing series?
Why didn’t Mysterious Ways #4 #5 and #6 come to print as individual issues?
What is the biggest weakness/limitation you see in today’s art and in artist’s portfolio’s/submissions?
With digital comics growing year by year, do you see this as the demise of the floppy and comic book stores in the next 10 years?
Think Tank
The only thing I read from Top Cow is Think Tank. If you could tell me any other book that ya’ll publish to pick up what would it be and why?
Read The Darkness starting with #101 and I linked the first few issues in this thread as a free digital download so you can read it for free and check it out. It’s a fresh start so you don’t need to read the first 100 issues. I also think it is simply an amazing story with great art, everything a comic should be.
Are there any plans for Silvestri to pencil an issue of Cyber Force? I grew up with his art and miss it.
Cyber Force
Cyber Force is one of my absolute favorite comics from my youth, how connected is this new series to the original mini & continuing series? Any unexpected characters making appearances or returns?
As a 90’s child I would just like to take this time to thank you so, so, so, so very much for Power Rangers. That was and still remains my favorite childhood television show!
Rangers
I saw about a year ago Todd McFarlane doing some art lessons on his YouTube channel. Any chance for the Top Cow crew to do something similar?
